Below my own words, I have copied a missive, whose words, are only too true, and which I received today, from a friend.
It makes me ashamed of the quality of politicians we have today, in this country. It makes me ashamed of politicians whose major concern is, to follow their own personal short term agenda’s instead of focussing on what really matters.
It makes me ashamed that we have people like Kevin Rudd, who undermined Australia’s Prime Minister’s leadership as soon as his own party outed him. It makes me ashamed that the leader of the opposition, is a clown like Tony Abbott, who changes his position on issues according to who asks him the question.
It makes me ashamed, that people like this, can send our soldiers to die, to be maimed, to be traumatised, in far off lands.
Soldiers do not start wars!
Politicians start wars!
If we want the wars, and the needless waste of life, that wars create, the people must let the politician’s know, that wars are unacceptable.
One term politicians can send people to die in foreign lands. One term politicians, having served their three or four years, forget all about their decisions, once they retire on pensions that are obscene in amount. And they give no thought to the soldiers they sent to die.
But for soldiers who have died, the effects on their families are forever. For a life time. And for those soldiers who are lucky enough to return to their families, return scarred and damaged, for the violence of war, is not a video game. It is a real terror.
When ANZAC DAY comes, my friends, the servicemen and woman who have fought for this country, must be remembered with reverence.
But every other day of the year, when we see a serviceman or woman, we should give them, at the very least, a smile. Because, for putting their lives on the line, that is about the best reward they can expect.
I will repeat my words again, closer to our official day of Remembrance.
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Missive from a friend;
A Poem Worth Reading
He was getting old and paunchy
And his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the RSL,
Telling stories of the past.
Of a war that he once fought in
And the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his mates;
They were heroes, every one.
And ‘tho sometimes to his neighbors
His tales became a joke,
All his mates listened quietly
For they knew where of he spoke.
But we’ll hear his tales no longer,
For ol’ Bob has passed away,
And the world’s a little poorer
For a Soldier died today.
He won’t be mourned by many,
Just his children and his wife..
For he lived an ordinary,
Very quiet sort of life.
He held a job and raised a family,
Going quietly on his way;
And the world won’t note his passing,
‘Tho a Soldier died today.
When politicians leave this earth,
Their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing,
And proclaim that they were great.
Papers tell of their life stories
From the time that they were young
But the passing of a Soldier
Goes unnoticed, and unsung.
Is the greatest contribution
To the welfare of our land,
Some jerk who breaks his promise
And cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary fellow
Who in times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his country
And offers up his life?
The politician’s stipend
And the style in which he lives,
Are often disproportionate,
To the service that he gives.
While the ordinary Soldier,
Who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal
And perhaps a pension, small.
It’s so easy to forget them,
For it is so many times
That our Bobs and Jims and Johnnys,
Went to battle in foreign climes.
It is not the politicians
With their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom
That our country now enjoys.
Should you find yourself in danger,
With your enemies at hand,
Would you really want some cop-out,
With his ever waffling stand?
Or would you want a Soldier–
His home, his country, his kin,
Just a common Soldier,
Who would fight until the end.
He was just a common Soldier,
And his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us
We may need his like again.
For when countries are in conflict,
We find the Soldier’s part
Is to clean up all the troubles
That the politicians start.
If we cannot do him honor
While he’s here to hear the praise,
Then at least let’s give him homage
At the ending of his days..
Perhaps just a simple headline
In the paper that might say:
“OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,
A SOLDIER DIED TODAY.”
A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life,
wrote a blank cheque made payable to ‘Australia’, ‘New Zealand’, or any other God fearing country for an amount “up to and including my life”.
That is Honour, and there are way too many people in this WORLD who no longer understand it.
Lest we Forget